{"id":140388,"date":"2023-11-05T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magdelaine.net\/?p=140388"},"modified":"2023-11-05T04:00:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T04:00:35","slug":"paramedic-33-called-coworkers-after-pushing-through-hours-of-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magdelaine.net\/lifestyle\/paramedic-33-called-coworkers-after-pushing-through-hours-of-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramedic, 33, called coworkers after pushing through hours of pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>My crippling pain was worse than childbirth but doctors still brushed me off. This is my warning to other young Aussies about an unthinkable disease that could&#8217;ve killed me<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lucy Hardy reveals how she was diagnosed with cancer\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0I was young and fit &#8211; but I had stage four bowel cancer<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It was well past midnight when paramedic mum-of-two Lucy Hardy realised she was in serious trouble and would need to call her colleagues for help.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old, from Tasmania, had been pushing through crippling gut pain she describes as &#8216;worse than childbirth&#8217; for hours.<\/p>\n<p>She sat naked on the toilet, soaked in sweat between violent vomiting episodes and looked at her roster to see which one of her co-workers would be finding her in such a vulnerable position.<\/p>\n<p>Months later, she would be diagnosed with bowel cancer &#8211; the cause of the painful episode &#8211; after doctors continuously brushed her off.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to FEMAIL, Lucy has revealed how her condition was misdiagnosed that night, and says she had to push doctors for months to investigate &#8216;properly&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/03\/02\/76783837-12638035-Lucy_Hardy_33_pictured_in_the_weeks_before_she_was_diagnosed_wit-a-17_1698979232933.jpg\" height=\"910\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lucy Hardy, 33, pictured in the weeks before she was diagnosed with bowel cancer\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I got to hospital and they did a CT and told me I had a bowel obstruction,&#8217; she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>The surgical team was called to &#8216;go in and have a look&#8217; and took out her healthy appendix as a precaution.<\/p>\n<p>Everything else &#8216;looked good&#8217;, so Lucy went home with the diagnosis of &#8216;undiagnosed abdominal pain&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I thought it was a bit odd, but thought these guys know what they are doing,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>When Lucy got home she was having horrific pain &#8216;in the gallbladder region&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Doctors said my inflammation markers were high and told me if it gets worse they will look into it,&#8217; she said, adding that the pain died down and she wasn&#8217;t worried until she noticed blood in the toilet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/20\/05\/76783835-12638035-image-a-2_1697775220483.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The mum-of-two has always been healthy and used to helping others in life-threatening situations &#8211; then she experienced the other side of the service\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I took photos and sent them to my mum, who is a nurse, and she agreed I needed to go back to my doctor,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Lucy had to give her GP stool samples from three consecutive days; lab results showed they all contained blood.<\/p>\n<p>The Tasmanian mum was put on the &#8216;urgent&#8217; colonoscopy list &#8211; a three-month wait &#8211; and when she finally got in, she told the surgeon she was afraid it was cancer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He told me not to worry and that I would only see him after surgery if he was worried,&#8217; she said. &#8216;He popped into the room quickly but didn&#8217;t speak to me so I assumed it was fine.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Then, a few days later, her GP called.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/20\/06\/76783831-12638035-Pictured_here_with_her_miner_husband_Daniel_the_young_mum_was_sc-a-65_1697781490554.jpg\" height=\"965\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pictured here with her miner husband, Daniel, the young mum was scared she was going to die when she was told she had cancer\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The surgeon had removed a polyp and results weren&#8217;t good.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My brain went straight to, &#8220;Am I going to die?&#8221;&#8216; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy burst into tears as the doctor explained he would do more tests to make sure the disease hadn&#8217;t spread.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The results came back and everything &#8216;looked good&#8217;, so they sent me for another colonoscopy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;When those results came back fine the doctor said he would see me in a year. I was super confused. I had just been given a cancer diagnosis and then told to &#8220;see you in a year&#8221;,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>She got a second opinion &#8211; and the doctor suggested she have the nearby lymph nodes removed in case the cancer had travelled there but was too small to be detected.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/20\/06\/76783829-12638035-She_had_the_segment_of_bowel_with_the_tumour_taken_out_as_well_a-a-64_1697781490553.jpg\" height=\"1133\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>She had the segment of bowel with the tumour taken out &#8211; as well as the associated lymph nodes &#8211; to make sure the cancer doesn&#8217;t come back or hadn&#8217;t spread<\/p>\n<p>She also had a nine-centimetre section of bowel removed, to reduce the risk of the disease coming back at all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I woke up with an ostomy bag &#8211; something I really didn&#8217;t want as a 33-year-old &#8211; but it is only temporary. And I am healing so well doctors let me leave the hospital early and have let me drive,&#8217; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These surgeries weren&#8217;t covered by Medicare &#8211; and neither will the follow-up surgery to reconnect her bowel so she can ditch the medical accessory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We had private health cover but it didn&#8217;t cover the surgery and because of that it also didn&#8217;t cover my hospital stay,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy hid her cancer diagnosis from her children, and only told friends and colleagues when she realised she would be needing surgery and to take time off.<\/p>\n<p>When she did tell friends, they set up a Go Fund Me, which is now closed, to help pay up to $30,000 worth of out-of-pocket medical expenses.<\/p>\n<p>She will continue to hide the diagnosis from her kids.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My son is too young to understand and my daughter is sensitive; I wanted to protect her,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/20\/06\/76783827-12638035-Lucy_improved_so_quickly_in_hospital_she_was_able_to_leave_early-a-62_1697781490046.jpg\" height=\"851\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lucy improved so quickly in hospital she was able to leave early and recover at home. She is now cancer free, but has to be checked every year\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She is pleased now that &#8216;the thing&#8217; is &#8216;out of her body&#8217; and plans on telling her kids later, when they are old enough to process the information.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I told them I was sick and had to see a doctor to make me better. My daughter knows about cancer and I didn&#8217;t want her to think I was going to die,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But they are higher risk now, so I will tell them as they will need to get yearly colonoscopies once they are adults.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Lucy said it was confronting going from being the person helping to the one calling the ambulance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I love what I do, I don&#8217;t want anyone to be sick enough to call an ambulance but I do love seeing the look of relief on their faces when we arrive to help,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Now she knows what patients are feeling first hand.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/20\/06\/76783833-12638035-Lucy_wants_other_people_to_advocate_for_their_health_and_realise-a-63_1697781490524.jpg\" height=\"1042\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lucy wants other people to advocate for their health and realise young people get these cancers too. She says if she hadn&#8217;t caught hers so quickly her story could have been devastating<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I am not one to call an ambulance, but the pain was horrific, worse than labour. I knew the crew who were on and they were amazing,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy says she was able to understand what was going on and be more vigilant, looking for follow-up symptoms, after that night on the toilet.<\/p>\n<p>She wants other people who are sent home with painkillers to advocate for themselves and keep showing up to the GP if they think something&#8217;s not right.<\/p>\n<p>She also wants people to know that it is okay to get more than one opinion about treatment after a diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-12638035\/My-crippling-pain-worse-childbirth-doctors-brushed-warning-young-Aussies-unthinkable-disease-couldve-killed-me.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My crippling pain was worse than childbirth but doctors still brushed me off. This is my warning to other young Aussies about an unthinkable disease that could&#8217;ve killed me Lucy Hardy reveals how she was diagnosed with cancer\u00a0 READ MORE:\u00a0I was young and fit &#8211; but I had stage four bowel cancer It was well [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paramedic, 33, called coworkers after pushing through hours of pain - magdelaine.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magdelaine.net\/lifestyle\/paramedic-33-called-coworkers-after-pushing-through-hours-of-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paramedic, 33, called coworkers after pushing through hours of pain - magdelaine.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My crippling pain was worse than childbirth but doctors still brushed me off. 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